The hiking trail seemed shorter and less treacherous in the daytime. Maybe going the way from which he came was a bad idea, but walking a path he knew hadn't opened into some cavernous rift during the day was supposed to be a comfort. But he felt like he was trying to run up an escalator heading downwards. There seemed to be no progress.
Although it was seemingly impossible to get lost on a straight hiking trail, Naseru felt lost. Maybe that was worse.
He was stumbling in the dark. His phone's flashlight was barely bright enough to illuminate the undergrowth beneath his feet. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he fled. He felt pathetic and puny, running like this. He'd never been afraid of the dark in America. But the dark was a terrible place to be now.
He swallowed the lump in his throat, nausea rising in his stomach as his insides angrily churned.
"Sis? Big Sis!" a voice shouted from the darkness, "Sis, please! I'm stuck, I need help!"
Naseru made a fist. There was no way that anyone else had slipped away from their cabins undetected, especially not alone. While Naseru and Jean-Luc were able to slink off because neither of them were bound by the same obligations to their schools and teams, and could, as Jean-Luc suggested, just pretend not to speak a lick of Japanese if caught, the voice he was hearing, sounded younger. He was crying out, like he was weak and feeble. His voice was a bit squeaky, like it hadn't completely broken yet. It reminded him of that asthmatic boy from Kuroyama.
Naseru's stomach felt like it was lined with lead. He bit his lip with such ferocity he could taste blood, as he descended the hiking path. As he descended, struggling to remain upright in his haste to reach someone, he heard a second voice, a girl's voice.
Her voice wasn't as familiar. He couldn't place it, but she was calling the boy's name, her breathing was laboured. There were few girls on the site, most of the women were probably in bed, but there were one or two younger ones that might have still been up and about, had there not been a murderer on the loose. Maybe the guide, Yoshida, who'd told everyone about the fish in the pools. Maybe it was her. From the sound of her panting, she was probably running up the trail. She was gasping, with every breath she exhaled his name. Shoji. The boy with asthma. This must be his sister.
He grimaced. There was no way that Shoji would have made it along this terrain, especially in the dark. Even Naseru was struggling, and he'd run this route this morning before being corralled into the gym.
"Sis? Big Sis!"
The disembodied voice didn't want him. And yet, Naseru felt like someone was watching him. But if someone was crying for their sister, then someone was probably going to try and come to the rescue. And that sounded like a trap. He swallowed the lump in his throat and approached one of the steeper parts of the trail.
It had been strenuous to run it in the day, but it was a different beast under the light of his phone's torch. He could barely make out one foot in front of the other, and the descent was steep. Very steep.
Areas on the trail were unruly. Easily avoidable during the day; a few stray, unkempt patches of thorns, nettles or knotweed that tried to catch him out. He was like a magnet, or a distress flare, attracting every obstacle in his wake as he stumbled through the dark.
He tripped over a loose stone on the footpath and caught the leg of his trousers on knotweed. The third vine he'd stepped on during his descent. He flailed his arms to stay upright and took a long, slow breath, wrenching himself out. He turned his head once he was free of the knotweed and saw her.
She was the girl from Kuroyama, Akane. The college student. She was wearing grey sweats and a black vest. Her vest had ridden up, exposing her toned abdomen, while her sweatpants were sagging, like the drawstring wasn't as taut as it ought to be. She had her hair down, a claw clip stuck up from the back of her head, but hadn't kept her hair in place as she ran. There was a fresh sheen of sweat on her arms, her neck and her chest, her bare skin glistened under the glow of Naseru's phone torch.
He swallowed thickly and tore his eyes up to her face. She ran a hand through her hair and slicked her bangs back.
"You don't have asthma like your brother, do you?" Naseru asked dryly.
She looked up at him and scowled, still bent forwards.
"Y-you. You're the guy who doesn't know how to play."
He nodded, had the circumstances been different, maybe he would have felt amused, instead of the cool vice-like grip of dread snaking down his back.
"Big Sis! Help me!"
Naseru winced. The voice was further away now. Whoever it was had stopped their approach and found somewhere to lurk. Maybe they were watching them right now. Naseru closed his eyes and took a slow, grounding breath. He looked at the girl, doubled over and panting, persevering through slogs of lactic acid as she tried to reach him. Naseru squared his shoulders, ready to block the path.
"I don't know what's going on, but I can tell you I swear your brother's not up there."
Akane wrinkled her nose, inhaling deeply, "And why should I believe you?"
"I was just up there. No sign of anyone else."
That wasn't strictly true, but Jean-Luc had likely descended back into the throngs of police. If he was still on the trail, she would have either passed him by, or he was at the other end.
"Big Sis!" The voice sounded strained, almost impatient. The squeaky quality was harsher than before.
Naseru put his hands on Akane's shoulders. She squirmed, desperately trying to get past him. He tightened his grip on her. She was tall with thin shoulders and wide hips. Her eyes were fierce, burning with molten rage, like every cell in her body was vibrating with anger. She was like an active volcano, ready to erupt. Dangerous. Tempting. Like something otherworldly was daring him to get nearer, closer.
She jerked her shoulder backwards, trying to knock him off balance. He dug his heel deeper into the dirt and shook her gently. She curled her top lip up at him.
"Think about it. Yesterday he didn't even make it to the top, he had to be carted down. I doubt he's stupid enough to try and conquer some inner wall in the pitch black with a murderer on the loose."
Akane stopped moving. Her snarling lip dropped and her mouth made a little 'o'. She reached into her pocket and produced her phone and unlocked it. The soft red of her phone background illuminated her face like a spectre. She was haunting. Terrifying. But Naseru wasn't afraid of the dark now.
She pressed a series of buttons on her phone and it began to chirp and trill. She put her thumb over her mic and listened. Silence. Even the voice pretending to be Shoji had fallen silent.
Her phone screen was dark, a face, mostly obscured by the darkness squinted at the darkness on Akane's side of the call.
"Did you butt dial me, Sis?" a voice came from the screen.
"Shhh!" Naseru and Akane said in unison, looming over the phone screen.
Akane leaned her head over the phone, the front-facing camera couldn't capture her features in the darkness at all. It was just blackness.
"Oi, light me up with your torch," she commanded, finally freeing herself from his grasp.
Naseru reached into his pocket, and produced his phone. The torch was still on, and had been casting a small glowing circle onto his trousers. Neither he nor Akane had noticed before then. He moved his phone torch, as instructed, so her face was illuminated.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Shhh!" Naseru said.
"Now you," Akane hissed.
"Ugh. You weirdo," Shoji groaned.
She heard shuffling and heavy footfalls. Suddenly a bright yellow light cast into life, and Shoji flipped his phone camera, revealing him in a pair of old tartan pyjama bottoms and a white vest. He scratched his chin, where a few sprouting hairs had come up. His hair was wet and the mirror still had a faint sheen of condensation on it.
"Okay! Thank you!" Akane said, hanging up the video call.
"If Shoji's in his room, then who-?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Of course it does!" Akane protested.
Naseru shrugged, "We need to go. If he starts to think you're not coming, who knows what will happen."
Akane squeaked in agreement, and grabbed his hand. It was clammy. She broke into a run, dragging Naseru along behind her. She held her phone in a tight fist, the light bounced off every stone as she and Naseru rushed down the steep incline toward the mouth of the trail.
Where Kaho stood, getting chewed out by a cop.
The officer was writing page after page of whatever Kaho was telling him. Naseru didn't recognise him. He was thin with brown hair, styled in a shag cut, and had big hexagonal glasses on his face. His work shirt was too big on him, swallowing him up, while his trousers were too tight, a faint outline of the hem of his shirt was visible on his thigh. He nodded along as Kaho ribbited on, she flailed her arms to illustrate her point.
A ghost of a smile crossed his lips as he watched her talk.
Her face lit up as she turned her head and spotted them. Naseru and Akane, still hand in hand.
"There you are!" she exclaimed, a grin splitting her face.